Michal Martikan

Canoeing

In a sport where the field of play is in constant motion, experience is golden. It takes more than strength to win a whitewater slalom race; it takes understanding gained from years of competing.

At 17, the Slovakian canoe phenom Michal Martikan is proving those axioms wrong. The youngest athlete to compete at the Ocoee Whitewater Center, the shy kid with an infectious smile is a contender for a medal in men’s single canoe races today.

If racing against much-older athletes were not pressure enough, Martikan is considered one of the best hopes for a Slovakian gold medal at the entire Centennial Games. None of this seems to bother him.

“I try not to think about it,” he says through an interpreter.

And then his pimply face breaks into a wide grin, as if he is embarrassed about all the attention. Yet he is confident.

“I want to be the next Richard Fox, the next Jon Lugbill,” says Martikan. “I am ambitious.”

Ambitious, indeed. Both Fox of Great Britain and Lugbill of the U.S. are considered the two greatest whitewater slalom canoeists in the history of the sport. The two dominated slalom in the 1980s.

Martikan gained the international spotlight when he took bronze at last year’s Slalom World Championships. In April, he had yet to celebrate his 17th birthday when he became the youngest person to win a World Cup race.

At the other end of the age spectrum is America’s David Hearn, 37, who has been racing since before Martikan was born. Hearn won the 1995 World Championship.

A word of warning: Though Martikan is an Olympian, he also competes at the junior level. Last month, the sport gave him a hard lesson when he came in second at the Junior Worlds.

“We were all shocked when he didn’t win it,” said Hearn. “But that’s the way it goes in this sport. You never really know.”